B01 Why IS THE SYLLABUS CALLED ‘Awareness-Mystery-Value’ (AMV)?

The name ‘Awareness-Mystery-Value’ was inspired by the work of David Hay and Rebecca Nye (The Spirit of the Child, 1998, p.59) who categorised meaningful, peak or religious experiences into three types:

Awareness-sensing: This is where a person has a heightened perception of the ‘here-and-now’ or the ‘flow’ of life’.

Mystery-sensing: This is where a person’s sense of awe, wonder and imagination has been raised, so that they are momentarily lifted ‘out of the ordinary’.

Value-sensing: This is where a person’s concern with their own needs and wants has been transcended by an experience of greater or deeper value, resulting in some profound feelings and / or insights.

Each unit in the AMV programme of study is linked to at least one of these types; not that such experiences will be guaranteed, of course, but so that pupils may enquire into the deepest and most meaningful of human experiences as part of their religious education. At the same time, pupils’ enquiries will be focused on specific teaching about religions and beliefs, so that they will have the opportunity to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of the religious and non-religious worldviews being studied.